I remember there being some rumours that Arsenal were in the market for Joey Barton when he was playing for Newcastle but I was thinking it was the crazy warped imagination of someone on the Daily Crap, but it seems that it was absolutely true, according to Barton himself.
Barton wrote: “I signed for QPR on the rebound from Arsenal. Pat Rice, Arsene Wenger’s assistant, had told Peter Kay they fancied me.
“A meeting with me was in the manager’s diary for the first Tuesday of the new season.
“He had the perfect opportunity to monitor my form three days before that, in what was to be my penultimate appearance for Newcastle, a goal-less draw against his team at St James’ Park.
“Maybe word of my potential move had filtered through to the away dressing room. They queued up to have a dig, and referee Peter Walton missed Alex Song’s stamp on me.
“If there was to be no red carpet, I made sure there was going to be a red card by going down like a sack of spuds when Gervinho slapped me.
“His outrage, on being sent off, was worth my booking.
“Rice sent Pete a text soon after: ‘Arsene says Joey will never play for this club.’”
What aplonker! I still find it hard to believe that Wenger even considered him, he has made a career out of being a dirty player. I certainly wouldn’t have been happy to see him in an Arsenal shirt!
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I dont believed nothing that fool say but i do remember in our quest to find a dm..after flamini left the first time some fans wanted wenger to buy him..some of the name we had come up with that failed at other clubs is crazy…thank God fans dont sign players
Sergio Canales, Godfrey Kondogbia, Lewis Holtby, Fellaini, Yann M’villa, Micah Richards and even Ballotelli would all be at Arsenal if signings were made by fans lol.
I’d rather have had any of them rather than Joey Barton. The man is an animal.
yea so what… we never could have known how he would have turned out if we signed him or any of those incarnate mentioned.. I mean look at Koscielny who was a nobody, look at Sagna, Coquelin was set to be released, look at Monreal who was a weak-link at a point.
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how much more Balo who was the European Golden boy, Fellaini who was brilliant at Everton, Mvilla who was good in Ligue1.
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so there is always a chance that if we had signed even Griezmann earlier he wnt have been who he is now and if we had signed Balotelli he could have continued in his promising career for some reasons. we never can tell.
Joey Barton could have come in, wenger could have work on his technicality n his attitude ll bring that Viera-esque figure in midfield or he could have flopped and just be an arrogant flop like Bendtner